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Timeline 99 -- 2009
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JAN 2009: FEB 2009: Mike Heuser dies on February 13, 2009.
Mike was the former chairman of the German group TI99er Workshop
Rheinland. He organized
the first European TI Treffen in Cologne on November 29, 1986 and was
very important for the cooperation of the European TI User Groups. -
from Berry Harmsen
APR 2009: MAY 2009: The 2009 Jim Peterson Achievement Award recipients are announced by JPA Administrator Glenn Bernasek: "Dear TI'ers, It is with honor and great pleasure to announce and congratulate the following recipients of the 2009 Jim Peterson Achievement Awards.
Also, in recognition of their lasting achievements, contributions and dedication to and for the TI community, it is with great pleasure to announce the presentation of the 2009 Jim Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award to Bill Gaskill and to the families of John Birdwell and F. Rodgers deCordova. Again, congratulations to the deserving recipients of these prestigious awards, and thanks to all who participated." Respectfully,
JUN 2009: Per On-Line User Group member Barry Boone, "The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its current owner, AOL. The service, which provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service, had seen the number of users dwindle in recent years. At its height, the service boasted about having over half a million users simultaneously on line. Many innovations we now take for granted, from online travel (Eaasy Sabre), online shopping, online stock quotations, and global weather forecasts, just to name a few, were standard fare on CompuServe in the 1980s. CompuServe
users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the
service was renamed) addresses at no charge via a new e-mail system,
but the software that the service was built on, along with all the
features supported by that software, from forums for virtually every
topic and profession known to man to members' Ourworld Web pages, has
been shut down. Indeed, the current version of the service's
clientsoftware, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999." JUL 2009: AUG 2009: SEP 2009: The Faire began on Friday evening, as has become traditional, with a gathering at a local watering hole, this year the "Club 1800." The management gave the dozen or so of us the entire establishment, as well as excellent service, to the point of turning off the music so we could talk without having to raise our voices. That would be something to be more valued the next day, but more about that later. We were even given access to the sound system to play Owen Brand's brand-new song, "See You At The Faire." All the patrons at the bar agreed that it was a hit, and many asked where they could buy the CD. We directed them to Owen's website, www.opry99er.com . It would become the theme song of the Faire! The second day of the Faire began with a breakfast gathering at the local Burger King, with old friends met new friends and took in a little nourishment to last throughout the day, since with a full slate of speakers, and a shortened period at the Evanston Public Library, there was no time to go out for lunch. The library had let a parenting group rent our room for the morning hours without notifying us. We didn't wish to kick moms and tots out into the street, so we worked around them. At noon, we all went to the library and began the real work of the Faire: the demonstrations and introductions of new programs and equipment. It would be a busy day for all of us. We were hopeful that the entire show could be put up on Ustreamtv.com,( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chicagotiusersgroups-show0 ) and it was largely successful. My son John handled that on his computer, which was lucky, since my computer was not able to access the Internet all day long. Others experienced similar problems with their computers. After a few brief opening remarks by me, Gregg Lemke of Emkel Software, http://ekmelsoftware.tech.officelive.com/default.aspx debuted the excellent new text adventure game, "The Hunt For Bigfoot." Gregg and business partner Terry Mayer also had new versions of their well-known screen saver available. Our second presenter was Berry Harmsen, Chairman of the Dutch TI Users Group, who brought us all up to date on developments in the European TI community. Berry told us about the latest TI Treff, held in Vienna, Austria, during the last weekend of September. Berry mentioned that there was a resurgence of interest in the community due to the appearance of new software from those programmers who have produced new methods to break through barriers and achieve things which were thought impossible only a short time ago. Amongst those producing new software were Thierry Nouspikel, who released "Bug 99" on his website. Fred Kaal produced new versions of his emulator, and his utility "TI99dir." The next programmer Berry noted was Filip van Vooren, who has been studying the possibilities of porting retro games to the TI99/4a. Wolfgang Bertsch has finished a new version of the program "Magic File Manipulator," and made it available on the website of TI-Club Errorfree: www.errorfree.de . Berry reported that Paolo Bagnaresi totally rewrote his program, "TI99-PC" for use with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Berry showed the first part of an interview with Paolo, which will soon be available on YouTube. After his report on Europe, Berry returned wearing a new hat: as representative of the Board of Governors of the TI99 Hall of Fame. He first acquainted us with the purpose and history of the Hall of Fame and the HOF website, www.ti99hof.org . Berry then called the members of the executive board of the Chicago TI User Group to the front of the room and announced that the CTIUG had been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and presented us with a certificate attesting to that fact. Berry introduced the group, Vic Steerup, president, Irv Levinson, treasurer, Al Antonowitz, membership chairman, and me, Hal Shanafield, secretary. We were all greatly honored by the selection, and thanked the Board of Governors. We will treasure the certificate, and plan to share it, much as members of the winning team in hockey share the Stanley Cup. Our next presenter was the unofficial TI historian, Bill Gaskill, who brought us a large variety of very interesting things. First off, Bill introduced his program, "INFO-BASE," which he pointed out, is built up the fine index card program, "TI CARD," by Lucie Dorais, originally published in MICROpendium in 1994. Bill demonstrated the additions and improvements to the original program. The next item he presented was the updated version of the Altman Fairware List, of which he is now official custodian. Bill has not only taken on the responsibility for maintaining the AFL, but he has also sought to improve it by building in a function to allow it to be searched by various categories, e.g. author, subject, and type. He has researched the AFL carefully and has divided it into ten categories, which he constantly maintains. It is a major ongoing service to the entire TI community. Bill then demonstrated the new port of the Activision game, "Pitfall," originally written by David Crane, and ported to the TI by Filip van Vooren. Bill confessed to not being a great gamer, but he gave a fine demo of Filip's effort. Finally, Bill introduced a special Faire CD containing all the articles he had written in past years. He offered the CD for a nominal price of $10, and announced that all the proceeds from the sale would be raffled off. He handed out numbers to all the attendees and had a visitor pluck a number out of my TI hat. Irv Levinson was the lucky winner! Erik Olsen was next to speak, and he showed us a program that he and his friend Graig Donini had begun some years ago, "Bubble Plane," which caught the attention of the audience. He first demonstrated the assembly version on a Geneve, at the back of the room, and then the XB version at the front of the room, on a TI99/4a. We were impressed by the graphics and levels of difficulty in a game originally developed some time ago. Erik said the game in its final form will be released presently. Our next presenter was Walid Maalouli, who showed off his latest hardware project and supporting software. He purchased an off-the-shelf card reader, which he connected to the joystick port. He then wrote an assembly program, "Magstrip," which read the magnetic strip on the back of a credit card. Several viewers on Ustreamtv.com immediately thanked Walid for providing his numbers and said they would only buy expensive items! Fortunately, not all the numbers showed up. Walid then previewed the assembly game he is currently working on, "Ultimate Planet," which he promised will be ready for next year's Faire. The game was unique amongst TI games for its potential similarity to Avalon Hill board games. We will look forward to the release next year. Walid then proceeded to demonstrate the brand-new game from Owen Brand, "Lemonade Stand." It was a business simulation game that required the player to decide how much of certain items to purchase, depending on how the weather is forecast, and how many customers are expected. The game lasts 21 days, if you guess right, and a lot less if you guess wrong! This game is the first effort from a promising new author, whose next offering, "Honeycomb Rapture" is already in the works. The game is currently available from his website. Glenn Bernasek spoke about the Jim Peterson Award, named for the prolific software author and publisher. Glenn is the person responsible for receiving the nominations for the annual award, given to individuals in several categories in the TI community. He exhibited several of the past awards and listed the history of the winners. Richard Bell showed us the new and improved version of the Myarc floppy disk controller, which featured a design by Michael Becker and was implemented by Richard himself. He mentioned that Michael had added an oscillator, which provided stability. He explained that he would simply swap cards sent to him for new cards unless the owner insists on getting back their original card, and is willing to wait until Richard has time available. He mentioned for those who weren't aware, that he is still repairing Myarc products, subject to the availability of the components. Jon Guidry then took the floor to discuss his latest project, the module kit, which comes in 8, 16 and 64k versions, depending on the EPROM inserted. His slide show was very well done, and answered many questions before they were asked. Jon mentioned that he would be selling the kits he had brought to the Faire, until they were all gone, but only after the speakers were all finished with their presentations, to avoid the stampede of attendees to his table as he was speaking. The kit lists the contributions of Carlos Randolph, Ron Reuter, Stuart Conner, Mike Brent and Jon. He mentioned that he would be able to burn EPROMs for programs such as DM2K, by Fred Kaal, which could be placed into the completed module kit. He also said that if there was sufficient interest, and if his wife would allow it, he would consider making another run of boards. More information can be found on his website, www.hexbus.com . Our last speaker was Mike Brent, perhaps better known as Tursi. He showed us the latest version of his hardware creation, the PS2 adapter that allows the use of both the TI and PC keyboards with the console. He directed us to his website, www.harmlesslion.com for the latest versions of his TI software, including "Image Converter," which converts PC pictures into TI Artist images. He was reluctant to discuss programs under development until they are closer to release. The seminar portion of the Faire ended with the announcement that this year's banquet would be held at the Evanston Panera restaurant, and time was given for everyone to gather their gear, buy their goodies, and move their cars, since the library parking garage closes its gates early in the evening. A new record was established this year: unlike years past, no one got lost on the way to the restaurant. We were able to take over the back room and had the opportunity to eat out dinner before the speeches began. The banquet was televised on Ustreamtv.com again, despite the injunction from the management "not to do any videotaping." I assured myself that no tape was involved, and carried on broadcasting. During dinner we treated the whole room to Owen's song, which they all enjoyed. Owen was present in spirit, and online, and promised to be here next year to play it for us in person. Once dinner was over, the serious business of presenting awards began. The John Birdwell Award is presented to someone whom the Birdwell Trustees select as a person or persons who have made a significant contribution to the TI community. This year the recipient was Mike Brent, who has been very active for the past few years. His emulator, "Classic 99," has become a major development tool for those writing new programs for the TI99/4a. His games are well known in the community, and his website is a great resource for software and information. He represents a valuable potential for the future of the TI community. The final event of the official Faire was the selection of the recipient of the Rob Templemans Plat Award, given annually to the author of the best TI website. A jury of nine "volunteers" were chosen to evaluate six websites nominated from the extensive list of existing TI websites. Each team of three were asked to examine the nominated sites for just ten minutes and score them on three grounds, information, ease of use, and graphics. This year's excellent nominees were: - Rich Polivka (Ninerpedia) www.ninerpedia.org - Tom Wills ((TI99ers Hal of Fame) www.ti99hof.org - Fred Kaal (My TI99 and Geneve Web pages) home.wanadoo.nl/fgkaal - Mark Wills (Planet 99) www.planer-99.net - Owen Brand (Opry 99er) www.opry99er.com - Don O'Neil (WHT ftp site) www.whtech.com/ti/ The result of the jury's deliberations were very close, but the final winner was Tom Wills. He will receive this year's RTPA logo and will proudly display it on his site. Once the formal business was out of the way, it was time for the Magnificent Seven to begin their annual Bacchalnalian revels. We began slowly, and gathered steam as we went on. Each of the stops on our circuit was singular in a variety of ways. Some were loud, some quieter, but all were enjoyable thanks to the golden fluids which we encountered. This year another candidate for Babe Magnet came forward, and made an outreach to Russia and Austria. Names have been changed to protect the guilty. We found out that spirits raise spirits, but don't improve singing. They do, however, remove caring about how we sound. We needed Owen, who CAN sing. We ran into a pizzeria that would deliver a pizza across town, but not in front of the door. And just today, as we were walking down the street, we were hailed by an employee of the Burger King who remembered the huge order placed by a certain doctor of our acquaintance. Doctor's orders should always be followed, I guess. For the rest, my lips are sealed. What happens in Evanston, stays in Evanston. Come to the Faire next November 6, 2010 and see what I mean. At this year's Faire there were a number of disks given out, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the names of those who distributed their handiwork. Vic Steerup, Bill Gaskill, Gregg Lemke, all passed out disks, and Owen Brand gave us the anthem of the Faire. In addition, Al Antonowitz, Irv Levinson, and Vic Steerup manned the CTIUG tables. And without the gentle prodding by Berry Harmsen, this report would not have been produced, and the Faire would have been a much less pleasurable event. Now all I have to do is lose the ten pounds that I gain each time he comes over to make this a truly international occasion. Thanks to all those who came, as well.. Hal Shanafield NOV 2009: "For those interested, I have been in touch with Tony McGovern of FunnelWeb fame. Tony happened to come across the CF7/FWEB discussion thread of a few months ago (thanks in part to Bob Carmany), and provided me some valuable information related to why FWEB allocates VDP RAM. As you may recall, the CF7 device and FWEB had some differences of opinion to reconcile ;) Anyway, to make a long story short, Tony seny me, to paraphrase, "the last remaining disks of Funnelweb source that might exist." Of the 15 disks I have been able to copy six successfully. The remaining disks have degraded to one degree or another; some started degrading as I copied them! Tony Knerr and Ernie have offered some tips (thanks guys) and with some nitty-gritty recreation of FDRs, among other things, I've managed to copy what appears to be the "FW" loader, Quick Directory, and DiskReview40/80 and other util source code. A few of Will McGovern's program sources, including what appears to be a disk manager for the Myarc Controller that reads both TI and IBM disks, were also on the disks. Tony McGovern graciously gave his permission to release whatever files I recovered. As time permits, I will transfer the files to my PC, then ask someone with WHT access to upload them. I am still trying to recover bits of data (pun not intended) and files though returns are diminishing. Given the Editor code on WHT, we could be very close to having a complete set of source for this fantastic product. Finally, I have two disks that I cannot read. One 5.25" disk appears to be formatted to 80 track (I discovered the HFDC will read the first track with my 5.25" drive, so I may do some more experimentation). The other disk is completely unreadable. I am going to try PC-Transfer just in case it is a PC disk. If not, perhaps someone could check out the disk for me ;) That's all for now. :) Tim ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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